DISGRACED top Bulawayo lawyer Sindiso Mazibisa has been barred from practising law in Zimbabwe

DISGRACED top Bulawayo lawyer Sindiso Mazibisa has been barred from practising law in Zimbabwe after a tribunal on Friday ruled that he be deregistered.

Mazibisa was a senior partner at Cheda and Partners Law Firm before it was shut down in April last year.

Cheda and Partners collapsed following the misuse of the company’s trust fund.

In one case, the law firm failed to account for $335 000 which businessman Titus Ncube deposited with the law firm in March 2013.

Ncube intended to buy shares in a gold mine with Mazibisa as broker, but he later developed cold feet and asked that the money be released back to him but the law firm failed to reimburse him.

Law Society of Zimbabwe president Mrs Vimbai Nyemba said Mazibisa can no longer practice law in Zimbabwe.

She could not immediately name the other lawyer who has been deregistered, but said the legal practitioner was also from Bulawayo.

“I can confirm that two lawyers were deregistered on Friday after their cases were heard before a legal tribunal which consists of two judges and two senior lawyers. The tribunal then ruled that the two be deregistered,” said Mrs Nyemba.

“The two will never practise law in Zimbabwe or appear before any court. This can only be reversed after some time when the LSZ feels they have been rehabilitated. It is only then that they can be allowed to reapply to be registered.”

She said the LSZ will continue to punish members who bring the profession into disrepute.

“We will never tolerate corruption and as such those found guilty will be deregistered.

Our lawyers are the best in Southern Africa, they are known for being educated and smart and we will do all we can to maintain such high standards,” said Mrs Nyemba.

Mazibisa and Mlamuli Ncube who were senior partners at Cheda and partners, were last year asked to surrender their practising certificates after the fraud was detected.

They were later suspended by the LSZ pending fraud investigations.

The third senior partner, Nqobizitha Ndlovu, was later suspended by the LSZ for interfering with the law firm’s curator Advocate Perpetua Dube’s duties.

In a doomed bid to stop The Chronicle from publishing stories exposing the rampant malfeasance at the law firm, Mazibisa filed a $20 million lawsuit against the former editor, Mduduzi Mathuthu, reporter Thandeka Moyo, Zimpapers and Choppies Supermarket — who sell The Chronicle.
Cheda and Partners was one of the leading law firms in Zimbabwe with its head office in Bulawayo and branches in Gwanda and Victoria Falls.

The firm was established in 1992 by its founding partner, the former senior Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, who later left to join the bench.-By Thandeka Moyo. source-chronicle